What is public safety?
It is about looking at the state of preparedness for an emergency such as a tsunami or a terrorist attack. Technology can be used to expand and extend capabilities in reas like communications, planning, risk management, gthering and sharing information and citizen prparedness.

How do people contact their loved ones in an emergency?
When there's an emergency, everyone will be calling their loved ones ones and friends. This chokes up the local telephone lines and prevents the people that really need to communicate with each other- the ambulance and fire service- from getting through.

Calling a neighbour to ask about your family is the wrong thing to do because you'll add to the telephone jam. You can't get through and everyone becomes worried and frustrated.

What people should do is to agree beforehand on a telephone number that is outside your geographical area.

Chances are you'll be able to get through to that number. It can be a telephone number of a friend or relative but because he lives outside your area, the telephone lines there would not be jammed. So you can leave messages for each other with that person.

Can you explain how technology can be used in public safety?
Field communications between response teams like the police and civil defense forces are crucial in an emergency. But in my experience, they use incompatible communication systems which don't allow them to talk directly to each other. So it's important fro everyone to be equipped with compatible equipment.

For physical security, there is vdeo surveillance. By looking at the mages, we can use analytics which are sphisticated programs that can recognise, for xample, the faces of known terrorists.

Are Asian countries prepared for an emergency?
There are always areas for improvement, such as having effective plans that can be carried out when something dire happens. For example, getting families to have a first aid lit in their homes. This should contain not only food, but also medication for the elderly and even pet food if you keep dogs or cats.

Don't forget the batteries for your torchlights and even chargers for your mobile phones. These must be checked from time to time to make sure they have not outlived their shelf life.

Children must also be taught where they should go to in the home when an emergency happens. They must be taught to recognise poisons and how to remain in touch.

There are also other structural and non-structural things to do. Let's take Los Angeles, which is prone to earthquakes. There are two type of preparedness: structural and non-structural. Structural includes things like strengthening homes so that they can withstand earthquakes. Non-structural includes things like bolting televisions to the floor so that they won't crash and hurt people in an earthquake.

So it is not only about ensuring that the response teams can come to someone's aid quickly. Other areas are equally important.

The article What to Do in an Emergency was Submitted by Lin Collins through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information:

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